


Czernsgiving 2019

by imacashew



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Canon Murder, Child Murder, Everyone’s favorite ghost boy!, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21627691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imacashew/pseuds/imacashew
Summary: Prompt week for Noah Czerny.Day 1: ColorDay 2: RequiescatDay 3: ContactDay 4: GuillotineDay 5: EvenDay 6: Reunion
Relationships: Noah Czerny & Richard Gansey III & Ronan Lynch & Adam Parrish & Blue Sargent
Comments: 19
Kudos: 9
Collections: Czernsgiving 2019 A Noah Week





	1. Day 1: Color

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 1: I was more

When he was alive, Noah was an explosion of colors. The world was brighter, songs were louder, and he couldn’t stop basking in the joy of it.

He was seventeen. He was having the time of his young life and was excited to see what the future held.

His Mustang was a vibrant red, a warning sign that he was coming. That the residents of tiny Henrietta better watch out, as he was coming fast as he could. Red to show his passion for life itself. 

His hair shone in shades of yellow, as if it would tell the world his joy for life and the opportunities that came before him. 

When he wasn’t wearing his school uniform, he tried to wear any color he could. Orange, blue, green, purple. He let his creativity and excitement shine bright as he could. 

His smile dazzled with a blinding white. He’d smile at his sisters, his friends, his girlfriend, visiting parents, anyone. Barrington would groan in disgust whenever he’d stop to talk to people on the street, regardless of whether he knew them or not. 

It didn’t matter.

He was loud.

He was vibrant.

He was young.

He was alive and more. 


	2. Day 2: Requiescat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2: Requiescat
> 
> 'It was just an existence. An existence of a not-exactly-afterlife. An existence of not eating, not breathing, not sleeping.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Day 2: sleep when you're dead

The saying, “Sleep when you’re dead,” meant nothing if you were a ghost. 

It was just an existence. An existence of a not-exactly-afterlife. An existence of not eating, not breathing, not sleeping. 

After his murder ( _ murdered, murdered, murdered _ ) by someone he trusted with his young life, he’d become the wandering spirit at midnight. Three AM. Dawn. Twilight. 

Long lonely nights of fake alertness. Perpetual days and nights in exhaustion, but unable to Rest In Peace. 

(Maybe he’d never be able to rest.)

But, when Gansey moved to Henrietta, he felt familiarity and an echo of the ley line pulsing gently below them. When Gansey met him and treated him like a living, breathing boy, he smiled shyly. When Gansey invited Noah to live with him, he grinned widely. 

With Gansey’s insomnia, he found a companion sleepless nights. He’d observe from the sidelines as his friend painstakingly built his tiny, cardboard town, thinking how he would have done something like that in life. He'd listen intently like a student to a professor in a college he never went to, as Gansey would ramble about English wars in the mid-1400s. 

It was nice. 

When Ronan moved in with his shaved head, wicked tattoo, and disregard for his own life, Noah saw it as another chance for more company. 

The three of them would be up for hours, talking, taking long drives around town, buying juice at two in the morning, or sitting in companionable silence. In his afterlife, he had people he’d give anything for. 

But, the more he saw Ronan destroy himself with drinking, street racing, and the like, the more Noah found himself asking his friend to sleep. 

“At least try to sleep, Ronan. You’ll feel better about it.”

“You’re one to talk, Noah. I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

A frown would etch itself onto Noah’s smudgy face and a thought echoed in his decayed mind,  _ That would be nice, wouldn’t it? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hi on tumblr @cashew-butter and @cashewwritesstuff!


	3. Day 3: Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3: Contact
> 
> 'With every touch from his friends, he felt a little more alive.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Day 3: warm embrace

With every touch from his friends, he felt a little more alive. 

He felt more of himself when Ronan would sling a long arm across his shoulders, a wicked smirk on his lips. Noah would see that smirk and think,  _ What kind of shenanigans can we get up to this time? _

A tight squeeze of the shoulder from Gansey or Adam, to remind themselves of being alive and grounding all of them in the present moment. Noah would pull them from their own minds, while they kept him from getting lost in the cycle of time.

He was always touching Blue. His fingers in her hair, an arm slung across her narrow shoulders, hugging her from behind. He felt more like himself when she’d wrap her arms around his taller frame, her power flowing through his undead body. 

When he was with her, with them, Noah wasn’t a dead thing shaped like a boy. He wasn’t a corpse in the woods rotten to the bone. He was Noah Czerny, living boy. 

He could feel their love and warmth flow through him with their touches, as if he had real skin and a heart that pumped blood through his body. It was like they became his lifeblood and he felt a longing for more.

But, if his afterlife was filled with warm touches and warm hugs, he could bear it as long as they were in it with him.


	4. Day 4: Guillotine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4: Guillotine
> 
> ‘The shadow of his best friend stood over him, wielding his bloodied weapon high over his head like a trophy.‘

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Day 4: murdered

As his own skateboard connected with his own cheek, he could feel the bone shatter underneath his skin. 

He barely registered it as it slammed again into his face, snapping his neck to the side. He fell to the forest floor, the sun’s warmth filtering through the leaves. It bathed him in heavenly light. 

The shadow of his best friend stood over him, wielding his bloodied weapon high over his head like a trophy. His dark eyes manic with desperation for a misunderstood power. 

Noah reached his hand toward him, a silent plea choking with blood in his throat. A broken loyalty between classmates, roommates, friends. 

_ Barry, put it down.  _

_ Whelk, please, don’t hurt me.  _

_ Stop.  _

When the skateboard came upon him like a guillotine, his last thoughts were what could he have done to help his friend. 

When he woke again, his entire existence was a smudge on reality. A gloomy husk of a former glowing life of promise. A wandering spirit doomed to haunting his old stomping grounds.

Watching life in Henrietta continue around him as he stayed the same, lamenting about the loss of himself. Every year, parts of his personality decomposed along with his own body. Everything that was his stripped away.

Always wondering, what could he have done differently in his last seventeen years. Should he have told his sisters he loved them? Should he have treated his parents with more respect? Should he have left the birthday schnapps in the liquor cabinet?

What could he have done to survive? To live another day?


	5. Day 5: Even

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5: Even
> 
> 'It was quiet, but it was an answer nonetheless, “I would have died permanently if it weren’t for you.”'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Day 5: we saved each other

He found Gansey staring at the ceiling one night, cell phone clutched over his heart like a lifeline. 

This wasn’t an uncommon experience, as the boys of Monmouth Manufacturing barely slept like teenagers should, but Noah could still sense something was bothering him. It was as if their connections to the ley line connected the two of them together as well.

“Gansey?” He let out a soft whisper, causing Gansey to jump in the moonlit room. The other boy nearly threw his phone at him in surprise. Noah frowned as he took in the extremely mussed hair and crooked wireframes on his face.

“Noah! You startled me.”

He murmured an apology as he glided across the room to sit next to Gansey on the bed. He watched as his friend fiddled with the phone, sighed, and looked at his hands. 

Noah gave him a gentle bump with his shoulder, “What’s wrong?”

It was quiet, but it was an answer nonetheless, “I would have died permanently if it weren’t for you.”

Ever since Blue and Gansey found his bones in the churchyard, this conversation came up more often than Noah would like. This is what Gansey did, blamed himself for anything and everything, despite it not being his fault or responsibility.

“If I died, you’d probably be still alive. You would have graduated college by now, probably doing something great…” Gansey trailed off, his voice thick with unshed tears. “If I had died, I could have saved you.”

Noah looked at this boy, this generous, wonderful but fragile boy, who continued to carry the weight of his world on his shoulders. A boy who offered him friendship and a home. This boy who treated him like he was a living, breathing person.

They were even. 

“You didn’t have to die to save me, Gansey,” he said, putting an arm around the other boy’s shoulder, “You already did.”


	6. Day 6: Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6: Reunion 
> 
> ‘Noah was there waiting for him, patient and loyal, as he always was in life and death.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Day 6: afterlife
> 
> This one is also connected to my Gansey Week day 1 ficlet, ‘Forever.’

Seventy years after he died and came back for the second time, Gansey joined him permanently on the other side.

Noah was there waiting for him, patient and loyal, as he always was in life and death. He held out his hand to his friend with a smile on his face. Noah watched as the wrinkles faded from the corners of his friend’s eyes, the white hair darkened back to brown.

He watched as the confusion-filled gaze disappeared the longer Gansey watched him carefully, recognition came back.

“Noah.”

That all-American, familiar smile etched itself onto Gansey’s face, a smile that Noah missed so much. The seventy years felt like nothing and everything to Noah. He had given up their memory of him, but it came back when he stood beside Gansey. Memories of Noah’s role in the Glendower quest in death. 

Noah let Gansey talk about his life after the second death. Traveling the country with Blue and Henry. Graduating with his bachelor degrees in history and archeology, then his Masters in Welsh history. Being a professor, teaching history. Life with Ronan and Adam. Having kids. Getting married to Blue. A full life. 

This boy, this man wouldn’t have had that life if Noah hadn’t died. If Noah had lived, he’d be the one who had the life of doing whatever he pleased. 

Despite dying, despite being a ghost, despite being forgotten, Noah was satisfied with his choices. Gansey was a friend who deserved his loyalty, his life.

Noah was so happy for him. 

The two of them had some time before the others joined them, but that was okay. They'd be waiting for them in the end and they’d be together again. 

He put his arm around his friend’s broad shoulders, “Hey Gansey, ready to stick around for good this time?”

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr @cashew-butter or @cashewwritesstuff!


End file.
